Evagrius Ponticus quotes

Evagrius Ponticus was an influential Christian monk, theologian, and ascetic writer of the early monastic movement. His teachings on spirituality, prayer, and the eight evil thoughts greatly shaped both Eastern and Western Christian traditions. He became a foundational figure in the history of Christian mysticism and asceticism. Here are 26 of his quotes:

125. A monk is a man who considers himself one with all men because he seems constantly to see himself in every man.

Evagrius Ponticus

97. One of the brethren owned only a book of the Gospels. He sold this and gave the money for the support of the poor. He made a statement that deserves remembrance: "I have sold the very word that speaks to me saying: 'Sell your possessions and give to the poor.'"

Evagrius Ponticus

In the whole range of evil thoughts, none is richer in resources than self-esteem.

Evagrius Ponticus

Just as it is possible to think of water both while thirsty and while not thirsty, so it is possible to think of gold with greed and without greed. The same applies to other things.

Evagrius Ponticus

Do not desire wealth for giving to the poor.

Evagrius Ponticus

There was a time when evilness did not exist, and there will be a time when it will no more exist, whereas there was no time when virtue did not exist, and there will be no time when it will not exist. For the germs of virtue are impossible to destroy.

Evagrius Ponticus

36. Do you wish to pray? Renounce all things. You then will become heir to all.

Evagrius Ponticus

120. Happy is the spirit that attains to complete unconsciousness of all sensible experience at the time of prayer.

Evagrius Ponticus

153. When you give yourself to prayer, rise above every other joy - then you will find true prayer.

Evagrius Ponticus

70. You will not be able to pray purely if you are all involved with material affairs and agitated with unremitting concerns. For prayer is the rejection of conceptions.

Evagrius Ponticus

81. Agape is the progeny of apatheia. Apatheia is the very flower of ascesis. Ascesis consists in keeping the commandments. The custodian of those commandments is the fear of God which is in turn the offspring of true faith. Now faith is an interior an interior good, one which is to be found even in those who do not yet believe in God.

Evagrius Ponticus

123. Happy is the monk who considers all men as god - after God.

Evagrius Ponticus

117. Let me repeat this saying of mine that I once expressed on some other occasions: Happy is the spirit that attains to the perfect formlessness at the time of prayer.

Evagrius Ponticus

118. Happy is the spirit which, praying with distraction, goes on increasing its desire for God.

Evagrius Ponticus

150. Just as sight is the most worthy of the sense, so also is prayer the most divine of the virtues.

Evagrius Ponticus

119. Happy is the spirit that becomes free of all matter and is stripped of all at the time of prayer.

Evagrius Ponticus

64. The proof of apatheia is had when the spirit begins to see its own light, when it remains in a state of tranquility in the presence of the images it has during sleep and when it maintains its calm as it beholds the affairs of life.

Evagrius Ponticus

124. A monk is a man who is separated from all and who is in harmony with all.

Evagrius Ponticus

37. First of all pray to be purified from your passions. Secondly, pray to be delivered from ignorance. Thirdly, pray to be freed from all temptation and abandonment.

Evagrius Ponticus

The demon of avarice, it seems to me, is extraordinarily complex and is baffling in his deceits. Often, when frustrated by the strictness of our renunciation, he immediately pretends to be a steward and a lover of the poor; he urges us to prepare a welcome for strangers who have not yet arrived or to send provisions for absent brethren. He makes us mentally visit prisons in the city and ransom those on sale as slaves. He suggests that we should attach ourselves to wealthy women, and advises us to be obsequious to others who have a full purse. And so, after deceiving the soul, little by little he engulfs it in avaricious thoughts and then hands it over to the demon of self-esteem.

Evagrius Ponticus

52. To separate the body from the soul is the privilege of only of the One who has joined them together. But to separate the soul from the body lies as well in the power of the man who pursues virtue. For our Fathers gave to the meditation of death and to the flight from the body a spiritual name: anachoresis [withdrawal].

Evagrius Ponticus

Do you desire, then, to embrace this life of solitude, and to seek out the blessings of stillness? If so, abandon the cares of the world, and the principalities and powers that lie behind them: free yourself from attachment to material things, from domination by passions and desires, so that as a stranger to all this you may attain true stillness.

Evagrius Ponticus